Bob Griese: Let quarterbacks decide how much air to put in the ball

Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese has a simple take on Deflategate: It never should have been an issue because the minimum air pressure in a football never should have been a rule.

Griese says it’s ridiculous that the NFL even has the rule that resulted in Patriots quarterback Tom Brady getting suspended because quarterbacks should simply be allowed to put however much air in the football they want.

“You know all this business about Deflategate and all that other stuff, what’s wrong with taking a little bit of air out of the ball and still making it legal?’’ Griese told Don Banks of Patriots.com. “It’s a passing league anyway. You want quarterbacks to be able to throw the ball in December when it gets colder and the ball gets slick, which it does, or in the rain when it gets slippery. Why not take a little air out of the ball? Lower the amount of air you can have in the ball, and if some quarterbacks like it harder, then you can pump it up a little. Change the degrees of error a little bit. It’s just a comfort level thing. The balls back when I played were a lot different than they are today, and I had small hands, so it was really a problem for me at times.’’

Griese’s view is quite a bit different from that of his old coach, Don Shula, who calls Bill Belichick “Beli-cheat” and who said in comparing his Dolphins to the Patriots, “Always done the right way. We didn’t deflate any balls.”

But while Shula may not agree, Griese raises an interesting point: Why is it in the NFL’s interests to force quarterbacks to use footballs that they think are too hard or too soft? If a quarterback thinks he’ll play better with a football that has a little more air or a little less air, the NFL should let him do so.

Doesnt work that way Bobby. You are probably letting PGA golfers doctor their game balls and jack up their drivers. Doesnt work that way. Level playing field at all times possible. Rules are rules. Speaking of rules, how is your IRS case going? LOL!

I actually agree with Griese. It’s like telling a baseball player that he has to use a 34″ bat and doesn’t have a choice. It is something that is all about preference, it doesn’t give the player an unfair advantage. Same with the footballs in my opinion.

If a quarterback thinks he’ll play better with a football that has a little more air or a little less air, the NFL should let him do so.
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Yeah, like they already do now for Rodgers (more), Luck (less), and Roethlisberger (less).

Only non QB’s and QB’s who specifically like balls filled to the max think this is a thing. And the latter is just trying to get an advantage. It should be up to the QB as long as it is over the minimum. There should be a minimum and max. But that should be to ensure everything looks right. Certain balls should be used for kicking and punting ,too. Those would most likely be filled to the max, but that should be up to the kicker. For the record-Not a Patriot fan here but that whole deflate gate thing was crap.

Don Shula was not clean. How can a guy who negotiates a contract with one team when he is employed by another not be a cheater? He and the Dolphins had to give up a #1 pick. He’s also a named defendant in the lawsuit as a coach who mandated that his players take painkillers or they would be cut. He is also known for manipulating the rules to his own advantage when he was on the competition committee (just like Bill Polian). Bob Griese has no skin in the game against Belichick or Brady and no reason to go after them or the Patriots. His son was also a teammate of Brady’s at Michigan. The Grieses always seemed pretty clean.

After he retired former NFL pro bowl QB Jeff Blake, who played for the Jets, Bengals, Saints, Ravens, Cardinals, Eagles and Bears admitted during a radio interview on Nashville 104.5 The Zone that he ordered ball boys to let the air out of his footballs just before the game throughout his NFL career. He played from 1992 to 2005.

“Cause when you take the balls out of the bag, they are rock hard. And you can’t feel the ball as well. It’s too hard. Everybody puts the pin in and takes just enough air out of the ball that you can feel it a little better. But it’s not the point to where it’s flat. So I don’t know what the big deal is. It’s not something that’s not been done for 20 years.”

The NFL never investigated any of these teams. They never fined any of these teams. They never penalized any of them either financially or by removing draft picks. This is quit ironic given the Ravens were one of the teams deflating balls and they started the whole thing over deflategate.

That’s seven teams, the Jets, Bengals, Saints, Ravens, Cardinals, Eagles and Bears who all deflated balls and no one ever blinked an eye over it or thought anything wrong with it.

Brady was not suspended because the Patriots’ footballs had less air than they should have. The Colts’ footballs were also too low. Besides, the Well$ Report, science, 2 court hearings, and common sense proved that Deflategate was simply a scheme perpetrated by Mike Kensil.

Brady was not suspended for not cooperating either. Brady was explicitly told that the phone was no longer needed. The NFL’s chief investigator, Ted Well$, praised Brady and the Patriots for their level of cooperation.

The NFL’s web of lies was exposed time and time again as their story changed several times. Even in court. Remember, Brady testified under oath, but the NFL steadfastly refused and were caught lying several times. The NFL was asked directly if they had ANY evidence that Brady cheated. The answer they gave was, No.”

Brady was suspended simply because the Appeals Court determined that Goodell didn’t have to follow US Labor Laws. That court ruled that Goodell could suspend anyone for any reason, real or imagined. Goodell can suspend Gronk if Manning fails a drug test.

Plus a soft ball is easier to grip/squeeze. Less fumbles which is why NE probably likes it soft.
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The super tacky gloves everybody wears are a far bigger factor in improving grip than -0.2 psi. Especially in the cold and rain.

Let the pitchers scuff the ball, point guards change pressure and hockey captains decide how large the nets should be. There has to be a standard. Many QBs have done it over the years, Brady just got caught and lied about. If he had admitted it, I doubt anything would have been said or done other than a small token fine.

Are the home team and away team going to supply their own footballs? What the home QB will want may differ from the opposing team’s QB. Is there common ground? What about if the starter goes down? The backup may want something totally different.

Brady just got caught and lied about. If he had admitted it, I doubt anything would have been said or done other than a small token fine.

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Except the “56 nfl deflategate lies” were not told by Brady. Except that science says that the weather explains the drop in PSI. Except footballs can be seen dropping PSI in videos posted online. Except the Steelers footballs deflated last season. Except the NFL is still hiding the PSI information from the 2015 season.

Brady has played in 26 games since “deflategate”, winning two Super Bowls and piling up his stats. I don’t think them allowing QB’s to set whatever pressures they won’t is going to change anything, they’ll all still be looking up to Brady.

I am not a Pats fan at all, but I said the same thing while this whole thing was spinning out of control. They are allowed to have the external part of the ball prepared how they want it. They are rubbed and sanded down to help the QB with their grip, why can’t they do the same to the inside of the ball?

I agree with Griese – let the QB decide how much air to put in the ball and remove that rule. We can still prevent the QB from roughing up the surface of the ball. Or we can start amputating portions of QB’s fingers that don’t match the smallest hands of the league’s QB’s!

I agree with Griese but this will not happen for quite a while, if ever. Could you imagine the outrage (especially from Patriot fans) if Goodell announced next year that there is no longer PSI standards for footballs?

WRONG. The NFL has standards and rules. This crappy idea is akin to a pitcher customizing his baseballs aka spitball.
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I believe that MLB takes mud from a river and has all the baseballs rubbed before using them in games.

The NFL already allows all teams to customize the footballs. Teams to all kinds of things to them. Scuffing them with sanders and putting all kinds of things on the leather to soften them. Lexol is one thing they use. I remember hearing that one team also used milk.

There was an article in a major NY newspaper on Nov 23 2013 that stated “Eli Manning’s Footballs Are Months in Making”.

Plus kickers get separate over inflated footballs so they can kick further.

I think the refs should prep the balls then before using it in the game they squeeze it. If it feels ok they use it. No more PSI measurements and everyone plays with the same ball that the refs prep the same way.

Go back to simple… so the game still resembles what you do on the schoolyard enough to recognize it.

If the rule about the PSI of the footballs had some relation to fair play, and competitive balance, and was not just the recommended inflation level, according to the manufacturer, then I could maybe understand the overreaction by the NFL.

The NFL has absolutely no idea whether the PSI of a football has any correlation to any advantage or disadvantage, so for them to claim a competitive edge was gained by deflated footballs is ridiculous. Especially in light of the Patriots performance since psigate was perpetrated.

Could you imagine the outrage (especially from Patriot fans) if Goodell announced next year that there is no longer PSI standards for footballs?

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Those who are smart enough to understand 7th grade science are already outraged that a team lost a 1st and a 4th round draft pick and the superbowl winning QB was forced to miss 25% of the season. Not to mention the million dollar fine. All because the NFL didn’t understand that cold weather and rain drops the PSI in footballs.

Then the NFL lied about it once they figured it out when they got the data back from the 2015 PSI study where footballs were tested during games. The NFL decided to hide that PSI information and stick with the punishments rather than admitting their mistake.

Over 10 years ago a flawed individual over punished a team for not obeying his poorly worded memo. For the last 10 years a handful of envious jealous crybabies have been doing their best to attempt to label it as “cheating”.

More recently intelligent people observed that same flawed individual as he worked to convinced those on the left side of the Bell Curve that NFL football fields are exempt from the laws of physics. Those on the left side of the Bell Curve used their newly adopted science denying belief system to reinforce their confirmation bias, which was already in place due to being fans of different teams.

Being subjected to 10 years of listening to the jealous crybabies go on and on about “the cheating” along with envy and jealousy from watching the Patriots win over and over again, was too overwhelming for those small minds.

Finally, sprinkle in all the already disproven, but still parroted, crazy invented nonsense from the tin foil hat wearing crowd and the weak minded gullible residents on the left side of the Bell Curve never really stood a chance to avoid being permanently duped.

Your “dynasty” will forever be clouded by multiple incidents of cheating, the same way the Steelers’ is clouded by steroids.
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Over 10 years ago a flawed individual over punished a team for not obeying his poorly worded memo. For the last 10 years a handful of envious jealous fans of other teams have been doing their best to attempt to label it as “cheating”.

More recently intelligent people observed that same flawed individual as he worked to convinced gullible people that NFL football fields are exempt from the laws of physics. Those gullible dupes then used their newly adopted science denying belief system to reinforce their confirmation bias, which was already in place due to being fans of different teams.

Being subjected to 16 years of watching the Patriots win over and over again, was too overwhelming for jealous people. Some of them took up a new hobby where they would repeat nonsense even after it was disproven while sounding like those who wear tin foil hats for protection.

I believe it was back in 2006 when the QB’s led by Brady and Manning petitioned the league to allow them to condition footballs they way they liked them, so they could get a better grip. The balls were hard and slick, and they were fumbling them and throwing wounded ducks. As a matter of fact, didn’t the NY Times do a full feature article on how Eli Manning runs footballs through a 9 month process where they are soaked in water, baked in ovens, scrubbed with wire brushes, etc. until the leather resembles that of an old football you found in your grandfather’s attic? The league was already altering rules for Db’s in order to cretae more successful passes and more scoring, so they approved this. Nothing was ever said about what ANYONE was doing to footballs until that fateful night in Foxborough. It was a frame up from the start.

By the way, Shula has to be senile. The statements he makes lack any credibility at all. He should know better. His record for stretching the boundaries of fair play, sportsmanship, and the rules, is well known and widely exposed in recent years.

Disagree completely
You (and griese) are completely disregarding the effect deflated footballs have on players other than qbs… i.e. Harder to fumble, easier to catch
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There is zero data to support that.
The NFL only measured the PSI in game footballs during the 2015 NFL season. That information was then hidden from fans of the NFL.

If that PSI information had been shown to the public then maybe it could have been correlated against catches and fumbles. The NFL chose to hide that PSI information because they were more interested in trying to create league parity and they wanted to keep the punishments in place.

Knowing that everybody wears super tacky gloves, only a true simpleton would make the simplistic claim that deflated footballs are “harder to fumble, easier to catch”. Take away the gloves and maybe you have a point.

It’s laughable to think a small percentage change in PSI has a measurable affect on fumbles and drops. Even the most obtuse members of society now know that the PSI of a football varies naturally during a game. No player has ever mentioned how fumbling became easier in a hot game because the PSI of the ball rose during the game. Similarly no player has ever told of how catching a ball became easier in a cold weather game as the PSI of the ball fell. Drops and fumbles are a product of less talented players and the result of these plays leads some teams to be less successful than others.

Finally someone with some credibility ways in with some common sense. Who gives a $hit about PSI. Let the QBs decide and theyll all be on an even plane. I could care less if the ball is flat. Realistically in the end, well be talking about a difference of 3 or 4 psi in the bladder of a leather ball..
Allow the game to evolve and provide the best product possible for the consumer. Let the QBs decide how to maximize their performance. Not some “Guy” that gets booed off the stage. Id say Goodell is a couple PSI off. Im sure many would agree. But, I digress.

The NFL needs a discipline panel instead of a regency. Take the responsibility out of the commissioner’s hands and put it in a five-person panel.

Two people have to be from the NFPLA, another two from the league office, and the last being a retired judge. Sure they’ll be a lot of huffing, puffing, and stalemates, but the league’s been around long enough to create a simple reference chart or schedule as far as discipline goes.

The panel simply needs to convene on disciplinary issues and if there are no extenuating circumstances or there is an impasse, then whatever punishment is on the NFL Standard Discipline Chart should be enacted.

All that noise from Deflategate was a gaggle of personal vendettas being played out in front of billionaires, millionaires, and the masses.

At the most, Brady and the Patriots should have been given a warning. But, in hindsight, that “4 game rest” sure played out well for New England. 34-28, final score if you have since forgotten the greatest Super Bowl comeback in history.

Give em’ an inch and they’ll find a way to take a mile.
Stop the nonsense and set a psi range that makes common sense for all QB’s.
I’d say why not just eliminate the rule but imagine how creative some teams could get.

Griese is right, to a point. But here I think–and this is only my opinion–is why Brady got suspended…Goodell, who is the epitome of an NFL game fixer and the puppet of Robert Kraft (aka Mr. GMO–that his products are loaded with GMOs is why I cannot stand Kraft–not because he owns the Pats!)–suspended Brady because he knows that Brady is the ultimate “chip on shoulder’ player who needs a reason to win more Super Bowls–to get back at Goodell! so Goodell punishes Brady simply to do the will of Kraft so that “vendetta” Brady will “will” himself into more supe wins. the man is driven like no team player in any sport that I am aware of–but the thing is, Brady needs a “driver” to “drive” himself into winning. He is the most motivated player in any league in sports history. And then you have Belichick, who, because Shula (with the most wins in NFL history) calls him a cheater, will keep at it until he surpasses Shula’s win total–and he just might accomplish that, with or without Brady.

Or until Goodell is fired for incompetence–and being a puppet of Kraft.

For all you haters out there, the Patriots would like to ask if you can extend a sincere thank you to the teams you support.If not for them our practice squad would not be complete.The players that used to be on your favorite teams and the players they did not draft that are currently Patriots would also like to thank you.Your participation trophies are on the way but you will not receive them until after the Patriots have their SUPERBOWL RING CEREMONY.Once again thank you for just being you.

How Bob G feels is not relevant. There is no proof of any kind that anyone on any team deflated anything, except of course those who admitted changing air pressure. Strangely enough, none of them have been fined, suspended or even spoken to about it.

mrboado says:
May 11, 2017 10:10 PM
The NFL needs a discipline panel instead of a regency. Take the responsibility out of the commissioner’s hands and put it in a five-person panel.

Two people have to be from the NFPLA, another two from the league office, and the last being a retired judge. Sure they’ll be a lot of huffing, puffing, and stalemates, but the league’s been around long enough to create a simple reference chart or schedule as far as discipline goes.

The panel simply needs to convene on disciplinary issues and if there are no extenuating circumstances or there is an impasse, then whatever punishment is on the NFL Standard Discipline Chart should be enacted.

All that noise from Deflategate was a gaggle of personal vendettas being played out in front of billionaires, millionaires, and the masses.

At the most, Brady and the Patriots should have been given a warning.
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A warning about what? Playing outside in cold wet conditions?

Shula is an absolute joke. Look at his record, he was caught for tampering, formation juggling and intentionally letting the field be muddy to gain an advantage. Evidently Don’s mind must be failing or he is just a hypocrite. He stretched the rules as a coach just like others do.

I believe he dislikes BB for 2 reasons,

1: He is jealous of his record and

2: He can’t stand Saban, and the thought that Nick is a good friend of Bill’s must drive him crazy.

He has set multiple SB records and and added 2 more SB championships to his resume AFTER Framegate, so yeah, PSI it meaningless.
It’s the exact kind of tacit, measurable, tangible evidence that undercuts the entire BS NFL narrative throughout the whole sordid affair.

“When you throw the ball, three things can happen, and two of them are bad.”

—-Some head coach in the 70’s.

This discussion has no comparison to a baseball pitcher. A pitcher (defense), throws the ball to a batter (offense). His goal is to not let him hit it. A Quarterback throws (or attempts to) the ball to his own teammate. Now his goal is to complete the pass. See the difference??

All QBs already bring their own footballs, both home teams and visitors, to every game, even the Superbowl. There is no competitive advantage if both offenses set and control their own game balls…Sheesh!

NFL needs to concoct more rule violations for the Patriots in order to maintain competitive balance in the league. It’s obvious, after 5 SBs and countless appearances in the AFC finals, that the owners’ vision of ‘PARITY” in 1994 hasn’t worked.
What next? Suspending their QB didn’t work. Taking away draft picks didn’t work. In fact, since that fallacious overblown taping scandal known as ‘SpyGate’ in 2007, the Patriots have a won loss record of 138-41 including playoffs. This percentage (.77) is greater than it was prior to SpyGate.
The only thing left is to wait for TB12 to get injured or retire. Seriously.

He’s dead on. It’s the epitome of fair play, level playing field etc. It’s not like baseball or basketball where each team uses the same ball. I’d say the same for golf, as long as the dimension stays the same, build a ball that suits your skills and you own the results. What if bowling had strict rules around the size of the holes?

To those of you who say that there has to be a rule that specifies the allowable ball pressure, you know… to make the game fair:

If that is the case, then why does the rule STILL not state what the temperature of the ball is to be when that pressure is measured, even though they have been educated and now fully understand the relationship between pressure and temperature?

Furthermore, the 1 psi range of pressures that the faulty rule allows (12.5 to 13.5 psi) cannot be maintained in any football game where the temperature on the field varies by more than just 20 degrees from the temperature that they were inflated and measured at.

A ball that is inflated and measured at 13.5 psi in 70 degrees will measure 12.44 at 50 degrees. Conversely a ball inflated to the minimum level of 12.5 psi at 70 degrees would measure 13.53 psi at just 90 degrees.

Google “Martin Shmaltz Pressure Calculator” for a hands on demonstration.

jxt2521 says:
May 11, 2017 6:00 PM
I’d have to agree. If it makes balls catchable for WRs then DBs benefit too. Those sticky gloves should be illegal for all though.

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jx2521 – you are exactly correct. using those gloves might as well be called cheating. It really doesn’t take much skill to catch the ball w/those gloves. That is why you see guys, every week, making one handed catches like a first baseman. All you have to do is properly pu out your hands and it sticks to the gloves.

pastabelly says:
May 11, 2017 6:07 PM
Don Shula was not clean. How can a guy who negotiates a contract with one team when he is employed by another not be a cheater?
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You are right, Shula was not clean. He is also a bitter fraud and a hypocrite in addition to being a ‘cheater.’ But render unto Caesar, he was also a great coach. Belichick, Walsh, Parcells and Brown were all a bit casual ‘interpreting’ some rules too. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The inflation of the ball has a dramatic effect on fumbling. This should not be a decision by the QB. The ball should be inflated the exact same for everybody, like it or not.
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Not it doesn’t. Why would Aaron Rodgers want the footballs over-inflated, if under-inflating them gave such a huge advantage?

There’s already a 1PSI range that the footballs can be inflated to, and even if there weren’t, the environment is going to affect footballs differently depending on where the game is played. The footballs at San Diego probably don’t vary much, but at a winter game in Green Bay, Minnesota, Pittsburgh or New England, to name a few, that PSI is going to drop.

Griese makes a valid point, but it was still a rule. If a QB or team doesn’t like the rule, follow the correct transparent avenues to change that rule. Don’t ask the “Deflator” to circumvent the rule. But agree with Griese here. If a QB likes the pressure at a certain level, let him have it at that level.

I agree, but I don’t want to see qbs spending time feeling balls and asking for a different one. I also don’t want to see them scuff there balls up. I am ok with deflated balls but everyone should still use brand new balls for games…balls

Deflategate was a farce. When the NFL discovered they really had nothing on the Patriots..much less Brady..they turned it into a smear campaign with lies and false stories.
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The NFL is good at marketing. In the case of Deflatefarce…..the NFL just used its marketing capability to manipulate the headlines. Orchestrated media saturation campaign.

But the NFL is still hiding the PSI information which they collected during the 2015 NFL season. Amazing how the NFL is able to display zero transparency when they have information that contradicts their deflategate smear campaign.